Recruiting, Attracting and Retaining Talent is a Challenge for All Businesses

January 15, 2018

RCS Influencer Charles Antis says that people with talent need to be attracted to something that matters and contractors should put purpose before profit and success will follow.

Read Video Transcribed:

Hi, it’s Charles Antis with Antis Roofing. And this month on Roofer’s Coffee Shop, the question is what do you do? “Give us some real answers about recruiting.”

Recruiting talent, attracting talent, retaining talent is a challenge for all business today, let’s start by saying that. People need to be attracted to something that matters. So as a roofing company, it’s clear to all my employees why we exist. And this is a fundamental place to start. We exist to keep families safe and dry. And beyond that, we provide roofing when families are not able to afford roofing, we still provide it, because our job is to keep families safe and dry. That’s purpose. When purpose shows up before profit, you will attract talent. Number one.

I’ll go back to that, but I’ll talk about another challenge we have. We, in the roofing industry, as you know, are understaffed. 20% more demand out there than what we have. And so it’s a real battle to get it. But a little fact I learned from some very intelligent people that serve on the National Roofing Contractors Association Board across the country. Through their research I learned that for the largest labor pool, which is immigrant labor for the roofing industry, mostly Hispanic labor, that their recruitment is more heartfelt. And it’s through, if you want to attract talent, that immigrant talent in the roofing business, then you need to attract them through employees that already work there.

And I didn’t know this because I’d had some failed policies in trying to attract talent in the past, but it didn’t work. What really works is talking to your employees. So let me give you an example of an evolved strategy that Antis uses to attract talent.

We give a bonus to our employees when they bring somebody in. So if they bring in a cousin or a friend or somebody they know in their outside of work roofing network, then we bring them on and they get a bonus. The bonus is in two parts. The first is received upon the first day of the new employee that they brought in. And say that’s $500, that seems like a bonus that we were doing last year. And then if that person is still here in three months, the other $500 comes and there’s a $1,000 bonus. That is such a win win and it really works.

I want to talk about one other this is because if you want to build a big company, you’re not only attracting talent in the field. You also need to attract talent in the office because you need to manage this. And I’m going to tell you something, I love you roofers out there that are great craftsmen. But there has to be a great business management division. And we’re a roofing company, and can a roofing company attract talent? The best talent?

Let me tell you want I want. I want the talent that wants to go work at Microsoft and Google. I want them to work for this roofing company that exists to keep families safe and dry. And I’m going to tell you something, if you don’t want the same, that’s fine, but you’re never going to get it. But if you want the same, put purpose in your company.

Start with your employees. Take care of them. This is a day of reinvestment. Survival is different in this new world. It’s a whole new time. The business, the strongest voices in business 10 years ago don’t have the same muster they do today with all of the shifting. But if you’re attracting talent with purpose, then no matter what happens, drones enter the workplace, no matter how much of it shifts to solar, no matter how the labor pool, you’ll matter, you’ll attract talent and you’ll exist because you put people first. That’s why the new companies today reinvest so much. I think we need to do that.